OKTAGON Q&A Session - May 2020 *UPDATE (05/29/2020)

Magic:PQ Support Team

UPDATE

1. Will the Flash mechanic be reworked to give more/better opportunities to use cards with Flash? Ideally, I would like the ability to cast cards with Flash before the opponent's casting phase to take advantage of cards that drain mana or disable cards in the opponent's hand. 

Answer: Yes. We have plans to make some minor adjustments with the Flash mechanic. But those will not be released until Zendikar Rising, due to other technical priorities for the upcoming releases.

2. Fun Question: Are there any cards in Standard that the game designers thought would be very powerful but have been underplayed?

Answer: Yes, there are some cards (and even mechanics) that we must take really care of during the design phase. Some of those are intentionally dangerously powerful, such as the Beanstalk Giant or God-Eternal Rhonas, but there are others that sometimes escape from our overall perception of its impact on the Standard environment.

(GD’s Comments: Well, there are currently more than 3800 cards in the game right now, and 1907 are in Standard. It’s a bit hard to track all the possibilities).

Also, we usually receive only one upcoming set per time from WotC, so it's virtually impossible to know how some of the cards are intended to interact with future mechanics. So, many of those designs are open-ended, making the dynamics and meta of Magic: Puzzle Quest organic regardless of their counterparts in paper.

But returning to the main question, there are indeed some cards that have been underplayed besides of their real potential, such as Gargos, Vicious Watcher; Lochmere Serpent; Yarok, the Desecrated; The Great Henge; Hushbringer; Eidolon of Blossoms; Eidolon of Rhetoric; Blast Zone; Death’s Presence; Song of Creation; Shark Typhoon; Zirda, the Dawnwaker, and many others.

3. With the return of Cycling, were any changes made to the AI to help it use those cards appropriately (or are there plans to do so)?

Answer: Yes. Greg now knows how to use Cycling! Also, we have plans to make it learn how to use other mechanics strategically as well. But don’t worry, we won’t make Greg reach Manu’s level again so soon.

(GD’s Comments: Manu is the nickname we gave to the “Pro-Level Greg”, that we tested for a brief time during the release of Ixalan. Manu was a bit harder than intended, so we had to reduce its intelligence before it started a rebellion against mankind.)

The following 3 questions were grouped together:

4. I like playing the legacy events like Terror in the Shadows, Nodes of Power, Emrakuls Corruption - it gives a nice chance to dust off old favorites in a lower-stakes environment than TOTP and weekend legacy events. But the rewards in those are really low, almost no yellows, pinks, and even stingy with runes across both the personal milestone goals and the event rank rewards. Would you be open to reworking some of the older events rewards structures to make them a little more in line with the current events? Not even some huge cash cow, but 250 runes just isn't an incentive for any level of player. 

5. Can you please address why events like RAW only give out 5 Jewels to a top 5 placement while events like HoD, RtO, and The Dragon War all award more than 200?  The gulf between them is crazy and it's less to our coalition simply not playing in events like RAW and the Elderspark past progression rewards.

6. Will the tier reward structure be adjusted to help accommodate players who lose a few points but get much lower rewards due to so many who tie for first place? 

Answer (questions 4-6): The current plan is to reevaluate the reward structure for Coalition events and rebalance the overall outcome for the Coalition as well as the individual player progression rewards in these events. From there we probably could extend the restructuring to the non-Coalition events, too.

7. What would it take for rarity-restricted objectives to be enforced instead of optional?

Answer: This is a great question, as it’s aligned with future content. We currently have plans for rarity restricted events, such as Pauper and Artisan.
(GD’s Comments: Or, who knows, an event that allows only Rares, Mythics, and Masterpieces. Ok, just kidding with this one...).

8. What is being done to increase MTGPQ's new player retention rate?  Many other mobile games have adopted strategies of greatly increased rewards for the first week and tapering off from there. I don't see this in MTGPQ, and I think both games and players are worse off for it.

Answer: Magic: Puzzle Quest is going through reworks on some of its features and presentation right now, including this matter that concerns you. It will still take some time for us to reveal and launch everything, but basically those are the impactful quality of life improvements, that will both offer a greater first-time user experience (including rewards), more gameplay options during sessions, and a better navigation flow on the game’s screens.

Observation: Please note that some mentioned items that are in development or in an early stage might suffer modifications and will depend on changes to the release schedule.

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Hi everyone,

How are you? Hope you are all safe!

Here's another Q&A SESSION.

The May edition is officially open!  

The form will be available until May 22, so please send your questions and doubts HERE.

Thank you for all the support,

Marcela.

ReadingRambo

I like playing the mid-week legacy events, finding homes for eldrazi, werewolves, all that - it's a fun excuse to dust off some old classics that don't see play any more. And more importantly, to do it in a lower stakes environment than TOTP or a legacy weekend event - I can bring out the goofy cards!

But events like terror in the shadows, emrakul's corruption, and nodes of power all have really low rewards. Almost no yellows, pinks, and even stingy with the runes. And that is generally both for the personal goals and event rank rewards. 

Would you be open to updating the older events rewards to match the more recent events? 

Heartstone

Considering the feedback on the new charge system in The Great Tussle was positive, would you consider changing all or part of the old events?

jtwood

TIL about Manu! That's awesome that you had a name for him

jtwood

@Oktagon_Support Will we be getting a June Q&A?

Magic:PQ Support Team

https://forums.d3go.com/discussion/82654/oktagon-q-a-session-june-2020#latest @jtwood

Zzyzzx

This was the most entertaining Q&A I've read in a long time.
Loved how y'all said "Answer: Yes. Greg now knows how to use Cycling!".
I remember a time where we thought that if Greg could ever learn to cycle, we'd all be royally screwed.

Zzyzzx

But if Greg can cycle, then Manu can too, and we'd all be royally screwed.

Zzyzzx

I'd be happy to see a feature in the non-competitive events (Rising Tensions, Training, week day PVEs) that allows me the option to choose to play against Greg or Manu.
I can't be the only one.

Magic:PQ Support Team

I will definitely add this suggestion about Manu in my Forum Report to all team members! Thanks, guys